Bubba Wallace Loses Second Place Finish, Says He Did Nothing Wrong

The race happened at EchoPark Speedway. On the very last lap, Wallace made a bold move. He swung left on the backstretch and dove underneath two other drivers, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney.

That move put all three cars side by side, racing for the lead. They stayed that way through the final turns, right up to a photo finish at the line.

But NASCAR reviewed the finish right after the race. Officials ruled that Wallace had gone below the yellow line to make his move. That's against the rules. His result was wiped out. He dropped from second place all the way down to 29th.

Wallace doesn't agree with the call.

"It says advancing your position, which I did not do," Wallace said. He said he stayed in third place the whole time and was hitting the brakes hard to avoid moving up illegally.

"That move should have propelled me to the lead, and it didn't because I knew it was wrong," he said. "I stayed third from the entry of Turn 3 all until 50 yards away."

What the rule says

NASCAR's rulebook covers this exact situation for superspeedway races. It says a driver gets penalized if they go below the yellow line to improve their position. It also says a driver can be penalized if they push another car below the line to help themselves.

NASCAR ruled that Wallace's move helped him gain a spot, moving from third to second. That was enough to trigger the penalty.

A costly mistake

The penalty didn't just cost Wallace his finish. It also cost him points, a 27-point swing in the standings.

"That's massive for us," Wallace said. He said other drivers chasing his team in the standings will see this as an opening.

"The position that we're in, we're not safe," he said. "We need to figure out what we need to do moving forward because, again, I did not advance my position."

No way to appeal

Wallace and his team went straight to the NASCAR hauler after the race. They spent about 31 minutes talking with officials, trying to get the penalty reversed.

It didn't work. Teams can only protest a race result within 20 minutes of it being posted, and penalties handed out during the race itself cannot be appealed at all.